At twilight, as they made their way back to the cavern, they came upon a
tiny lake lying asleep within the crater of a dead volcano. From the
sides little clouds of ashes rose, floating softly away on the breezes
of evening. The princess gathered a handful and murmuring some musical
words in her own tongue she threw them into the air.

"And would it be amiss for me to ask what 'tis you do?" questioned her
companion, observing her closely.

"I was sending a prayer to Wakan-ate, the Great Spirit," she replied
quietly.

"A prayer, - and borne to heaven on the wings of ashes!" He seemed
amused. "But what hast thou to pray for, oh fair princess?"

Her cheeks glowing with quick color, she replied: "It were not fitting
that any maiden tell for what she prays!"

The words were spoken with such gravity that the young man flushed under
the rebuke.

When she left him at the doorway of the cavern that evening she said as
she made a gay little gesture of farewell: "Today the land, but tomorrow
we shall find still more beautiful things that lie hidden under the deep
waters. You shall see!"

And once again with dawn she came. This time it was the splash of a
paddle that brought him to the opening in the rock.